Kathleen Parrish, of Tongham, is suffering constant pain after a mesh implant operation

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A Tongham woman who has suffered years of debilitating pain since undergoing a controversial procedure for incontinence has joined a campaign to outlaw the operation.

Kathleen Parrish has added her voice to a chorus of furious patients who say they were not forewarned about the dangers of having a TVT mesh implant, nor that the device could not be safely removed.

The 70-year-old Carfax Road resident travelled to London's Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in 2003, hoping the operation would solve her condition.

Instead, 14 months after the procedure, she began experiencing intense groin, back and leg pains, which have now grown so bad she can hardly walk.

She is now calling for such operations to be banned and wants to see the creation of a national register of mesh implant failures.

“I trusted what the surgeon said,” she told the News & Mail. “I thought it was going to make everything better.

“I had no idea that once this TVT mesh was put in it couldn’t be removed. They should be telling women that.

“If a surgeon cannot take it out if there are problems then they shouldn’t be putting it in.”

The divorced pensioner’s operation started more than a decade-long effort to persuade doctors to believe just how much agony she was suffering.

The procedure was banned by a Scottish health board last year due to concerns over its safety, and the European Commission is expected to release the findings of an investigation into the treatment this month.

Campaign group Sling The Mesh says the operation is ruining women’s lives and poses an ‘unacceptable risk’ for patients.

Ms Parrish's efforts to get effective remedial treatment have not been helped by the loss of her surgical notes by Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, which told her they went up in flames in 2006 during the Iron Mountain warehouse fire, where they were being stored.

The former Royal Aircraft Establishment employee, who has two daughters, believes she has now found a London-based doctor with the skills to safely remove the mesh, but says she is in too much pain to make the trip up to town.

“It feels very sharp, like something sticking into me," she said.

“It's a job for me to put my legs on the ground.”

A spokesman for Chelsea and Westminster Hospital said: "We have been in contact with Ms Parrish a number of times in recent years and we are sorry if she remains dissatisfied with our responses. We take complaints about our services very seriously.

"Ms Parrish has formally complained and we have investigated the issues raised by her on a number of occasions.

"She is correct that her records from the early 2000's were destroyed in a fire in 2006, for which we have apologised."

Frimley Park Hospital said it had no record of Ms Parrish making a complaint about her consultation with Dr Cockburn, but urged her to get in touch with any concerns.